DELHI IS gearing up to host the prestigious Commonwealth Games later this year and work is on at a breakneck speed in all sectors to make it a memorable event. The Delhi government is leaving no stone unturned to create a world-class infrastructure with state-of-the-art facilities on par with the best of developed cities across the world.
It is in keeping with this objective that the government of Delhi has undertaken the ambitious streetlight automation project ahead of the Commonwealth Games which is the first of its kind in the country. The project is being executed by Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Public Works Department (PWD) and New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) in their respective area of jurisdiction. Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore are at present also running proofs of concept (POCs) for the same.
MCD has already implemented the first phase of the project covering 52 roads in Delhi. It has spent Rs 32 lakh on the project. MCD is using altogether 300 GPRS SIM cards for the project in the first phase which will increase to 700 in the next phase. PWD and NDMC will also need a similar number of SIM cards for implementing the solution under their jurisdiction.
Bharti Airtel has generated revenue of approximately Rs 15 lakh through general packet radio service (GPRS) SIM card plan rental and MPLS backhaul charges. Entire payment for MPLS is made in advance for a contract of five years. The order was given to Bharti Airtel without floating a request for proposal (RFP). Multiple presentations were given along with the consortium partners like Horizon Technologies, Philips Electronics Ltd and Sweka to the MCD’s top management. The decision makers in MCD were the senior officials in the electrical wing of MCD.
MCD faced several problems in manual operation of streetlights by field operators. Firstly, there was no feedback from the devices in the field. Secondly, the entire work had to be done manually. From reporting in the log book to calculation of meter reading of energy consumption, MCD remained dependent totally on its manpower.
Besides, there was no repeatability of operation times and monitoring of lights on the streets had to be done physically. Since almost all operations were carried out manually, it consumed a lot of time and energy of its personnel. MCD found it difficult to effectively monitor its streetlights system without the latest technological advancements.
It used to take hours even for rectifying small snags in the national capital. The main problems faced by MCD were linked to high and low voltage, mains breaker trip, phase unbalancing, out of range phase current, contactor fault, outgoing MCCB trips, bulb failures, circuit phase errors, mains power failure, flashing bulbs, neutral failure, power theft, low-power factor, leakage to ground, and manual switch, control cabinet door.
To get rid of the existing problems and make the streetlight system free of operational glitches, MCD collaborated with Bharti Airtel which came up with the GPRS-based streetlight automation project. This system consisted of a feeder pillar ie, electrical control panel, which comprised a mains incomer, a contactor, power analyser and outgoing feeders.
Its GPRS controller had a GPRS-enabled SIM, which was connected to the power analyser, inputs from the incomer and output connected to the contactor. Another important component was the central supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) which communicated to all the feeder pillars through GPRS.
With this system in place, MCD was able to reap several benefits. Firstly, it had programmable real time operation of the streetlights with sunset and sunrise time. It also facilitated dimming of streetlights during off-peak hours. Significantly, it was also equipped with the facility to send SMS to maintenance field staff in the event of any faults anywhere. Its in-built device also helped in detection of power pilferage which had earlier deprived MCD of its revenue. The system also had facility for remote energy metering and was able to report on functional and non-functional lamps.
That was not all. There was also the option of single photo cell connected to control station in addition to the facilities of power quality analysis, consumption alarm, quick reaction to traffic and weather conditions, burn hour report, simplified maintenance, real time control, load balancing and neutral break fault protection. Moreover, it had the advantages of area-specific settings and automatic report generation on the day/month/year basis. Last but not the least the system was environment-friendly as it helped control CO2 emissions.
With these features in the system, MCD could save 32 per cent energy on an average on a day-to-day basis. It also reduced the need for manpower by 80 per cent on maintenance alone, apart from lowering the maintenance cost by 50 per cent. As a result, there was lesser downtime in the streetlight network and the payback period for the project was less than one year.
There were several features of WAN for the project. It had a dedicated virtual private network (VPN) for MCD application and static Internet Protocol (IP) address assignment to all SIM. There was also provision for authentication of SIM with the binding of SIM and IP. The billing server in the project was connected via MPLS VPN and no GPRS/GSM modem was required at the server location.
The solution was highly scalable by increasing the MPLS Port BW at billing host/ server location. Its call flow was monitored through a remote station GPRS modem which initiated a TCP/IP based data session with lighting controls over a dedicated private APN to management server. The number of simultaneous and concurrent data sessions could also be optimised on the basis of MPLS VPN bandwidth configured at the application server considering actual utilisation patterns.
MCD has already implemented the project in the first phase by covering 52 roads. It is using 300 GPRS SIMs in the first phase but it needs to cover more areas by using at least 700 GPRS SIMs in the second phase. Given the numerous advantages of the project, MCD and other allied agencies are required to keep all the areas under their jurisdiction and maintain the streetlight network in the best possible way.
With Delhi becoming the hub of all sporting activities late this year, thanks to the Commonwealth Games, it must have the fault-free system for maintaining streetlights in every nook and corner of the national capital. But MCD has to keep similar streetlight system all through the year long after the games are over.
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